Given the newsfeed here, we could almost be forgiven for thinking that the Middle East is just about oil, sand, and conflicts. Zahed Sultan dispels those stereotypes as he talks about life in Kuwait and the vast underground music scene which he’s part of. It’s the digital age after all, and beyond the desert across an entire continent there’s a mighty network of sound & visual producers beavering away in their studios, waiting for an international break. Zahed is a leading multimedia artist from that scene and earlier this year moved to London to access venues and platforms in which he can showcase his creations. They deserve to be heard. His compositions are multi-layered and intense, concocted with live as well as electronic instrumentation. He creates seductive grooves with sprinklings of dub, darbuka, and trip-hop, that hook you in regardless of the narrative. But that narrative is compelling too, touching on social and political issues, migration, segregation, fed in three languages, so it’s rich in complexity, yet simplicity, and strikes effectively. Zahed joins the shoal of relatively ‘new’ Londoners that can look at this city with a fresh pair of eyes, and work out how to enhance it. London will be all the richer with Zahed Sultan in the mix. https://zahedsultan.com/